Big Wreck

As the 1990s drew to an end, the Canadian-American neo-prog hard rock outfit Big Wreck scaled the charts via their debut single “The Oaf,” a post-grunge anthem that turned into their most successful radio track. The song appeared on the multi-platinum debut album In Loving Memory Of..., whose follow-up singles also performed strongly north of the border. Their second album, 2001’s The Pleasure and the Greed, reached the Canadian Top Ten yet made little impact on singles formats or in the United States, prompting the group to disband shortly afterward. Almost ten years later, founder Ian Thornley and guitarist Brian Doherty revived Big Wreck after pursuing separate projects and careers, returning with the 2012 comeback release Albatross. That effort peaked inside the Canadian Top Five and was succeeded by the similarly well-received Ghosts (2014) and Grace Street (2017). By decade’s end the band had issued their sixth album, the acclaimed ...but for the sun. In 2021 they launched Big Wreck: 7.1, the opening chapter of a projected three-part EP series.

Big Wreck originated with Thornley (vocals, guitar), Doherty (guitar), Dave Henning (bass), and Forrest Williams (drums). The four musicians first crossed paths in the early ’90s while enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. As rehearsals gradually eclipsed coursework, they withdrew from school to concentrate on the band, soon becoming regulars on stages throughout Boston and Cambridge. After several years of local performances and woodshedding, the quartet secured a deal with Atlantic Records in 1997. Their first album, In Loving Memory Of..., surfaced that autumn; still their biggest seller, it charted in both Canada and the U.S. and introduced the radio staple “The Oaf.” The follow-up, The Pleasure & the Greed, arrived in 2001. Although it debuted inside Canada’s Top Ten, sales proved disappointing and the band dissolved the next year. Thornley subsequently launched the project Thornley, which delivered two albums during the 2010s.

Thornley reestablished contact with Doherty in 2011 and the pair entered the studio with newcomers Paulo Neta (guitar), Dave McMillan (bass), and Brad Park (drums) to cut the 2012 return set Albatross. Audience enthusiasm lifted the album to number five on the Canadian charts. Park departed soon after and was succeeded by Chuck Keeping in time for the more prog-oriented Ghosts. Released in 2014, that album earned a Juno Award nomination for Rock Album of the Year and became the band’s highest-charting release to date, again reaching number five in Canada while climbing to number four on the U.S. Heatseekers chart.

Late in 2016 Big Wreck issued the single “One Good Piece of Me,” drawn from their fifth album Grace Street, which followed in February 2017. Around the same period Neta exited and was later replaced by Chris Caddell. The following year the lineup marked the twentieth anniversary of their breakthrough debut with a tour that presented In Loving Memory Of... in full. They immediately began recording again, previewing the results with “Locomotive,” which appeared on their sixth album, 2019’s ...but for the sun. Tragically, Doherty died before the August release, after which the remaining members continued as a quartet. Two years later they resurfaced with Big Wreck: 7.1, the first installment in a planned trilogy of EPs.